Hello Toggers!
A holiday at home
There is something rather wonderful about realising that you do not always have to travel far to feel like you have got away.
My work has taken me to some extraordinary places around the world, and I never take that for granted, but over the past few years I have loved holidaying closer to home with my family. There is a particular kind of magic in packing up the car, heading off together, and discovering somewhere beautiful right here in the UK.
We are truly blessed with what we have on our doorstep. Coastlines that make you breathe a little deeper. Forests that slow everything down. Hills, rivers, villages, footpaths, beaches and wide open views, all waiting to remind us that adventure does not have to begin at an airport.
The word “staycation” may have started life in the 1940s as a practical idea, encouraging people to save fuel and stay closer to home, but today it feels like something much richer. It is a chance to look again at the places around us and remember that some of the best holidays can happen much nearer than we think.
Whether you’re looking for places to stay or inspiration for your next hike – The Outdoor Guide can help.
In the footsteps of pilgrims
Our walk this week takes us to the North East of the country and the tidal Holy Island of Lindisfarne. With the ruins of a mediaeval priory and a 16th century castle, this is often the destination for many pilgrimages. Being a wheel friendly walk, it’s suitable for all the family to enjoy.
There is no single way to walk
Some of us head out before the world wakes up, before the day has made
any demands on us. Others take the long route home on purpose. Some walk to think. Some walk to stop thinking altogether. Some need a ridge, a coastal path, or a stretch of moorland so wide it makes everything else feel small. Some just need a green lane and twenty quiet minutes; walking meets you where you are. That is, perhaps, what we love most about it.
This year, we are thinking a lot about the paths that lead somewhere new, not just geographically, but in ourselves too. We mean the walks that shift something. The ones you come home from feeling different to how you left.
You can find those moments all over this country, on the Dales Way, where the light changes every half hour, and you feel the weeks fall away.
Along the Jurassic Coast, where the rock itself tells a story older than anything we can put into words. In the Lake District, on quiet tracks that the crowds have not yet found. On the Isle of Wight, where the landscape turns a corner and surprises you.
And often, those walks become even richer in good company. We have been spending time with the team at HF Holidays, the UK’s only walking co-operative, who have been bringing people together on guided walks since 1913. What strikes us about them is not just the breadth of places they help people explore, but their understanding that the walk itself is only half the story. The other half is who you walk with.
There is something quietly wonderful about being guided, properly guided, through a landscape you do not know well. It gives you permission to look up, to ask questions, to notice the details you might have walked straight past on your own, and to share the experience with people who are there for the same reason.
So, where might your path lead this year?
Four Things For You
So whether your summer takes you along a coastal path, up into the hills, through a quiet village or simply around a favourite local green space, I hope it brings you plenty of fresh air, good company and the kind of outdoor adventures that
stay with you long after you are home.
